Getting the live music experience

Tuesday

Feb 5, 2013 at 2:55 PM

What'd I'd planned to write about was music, specifically live music.

Michael Jones, mjones@stuttgartdailyleader.com

As I sit down to write this my sister is sitting behind me whining about her "poor banana" — it turns out she'd attempted to go grab one as a quick snack but when she went to twist it off the bunch, it snapped in half and ended up looking like fruit jingo. So, if this small bit of writing doesn't come out right…it's her fault. Seriously.

What'd I'd planned to write about was music, specifically live music. Though I have not had the chance to attend as many live concerts as I could (or should) have, there is a special place in my heart for hearing music performed in person as opposed to simply spinning an album over and over.Granted, I still do that. A lot.

This May, health and weather permitting, my wife and I are planning to go see Fleetwood Mac when they roll into Little Rock. Even though the tickets required us to take out a second and third mortgage on our house respectively we thought that the odds of this band ever touring anywhere near us again was so remote that we would always regret not trying to attend.

The way, for instance, I still regret not seeing Pearl Jam play Oklahoma City when we were living about an hour and a half away from the arena. Finances were much much tighter then as we were thinking we would soon have to pack up everything and move soon to follow where the job winds were blowing.

We were right that we couldn't afford it as the cost of those tickets went into the moving truck we drove that carried us here to Arkansas, but still… I'm still pouty about it.

Pouring salt into the wound I think Pearl Jam played in Little Rock about a year after we moved here, when we still couldn't afford tickets as we were renting and (go figure) that's amazingly expensive here in Arkansas.

My mortgage — first, second or third — is still cheaper than my monthly rent those first years here in Arkansas.

My wife has no such regrets for any live concerts, by the way, as she's only ever been to two concerts in her entire life and she had to be seriously cajoled into those. It turns out that only AC/DC and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have the ability to get my wife to say "yes" to the idea of going out into the unfamiliar waters of live music.

If you ask her she will tell you that she would rather listen to an album she knows and loves 99 times out of 100 rather than go see that artist performing live in concert. Nothing wrong with that, of course. To judge from her experience during the Chili Peppers concert I think the whole visual extravaganza of a show as well as the noise and joyful chaos of a crowd took away from her enjoyment of the music itself.

I'm sure she loved the experience and the concert itself but it wasn't until a week later when I'd purchased the live "official bootleg" of the concert we'd attended that she could actually listen and "hear" the songs she'd experienced in person. It was as if she were finally getting to completely enjoy that night.

As for me? I love the loud chaos of it. One of the most memorable concerts I went to was also in Little Rock, where Sevendust played so hard and loud that my sister thought she was having a heart attack as the music was vibrating throughout her ribs. I loved it.

I've loved all the concerts I've seen. I'm sure I'll be able to add Fleetwood Mac to that list of 100 percent enjoyment, but we'll see. Who knows? Maybe I'll see some of you out there and we can all share that experience together? I hope so. Until then, though, there's always my iPod.

"Listen to the wind blowwwwwwww…"

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